Health briefs

A new study finds that the level of obesity among young children from low-income households has fallen slightly. (elvira boix, Getty Images)

Obesity dips among poor preschoolers

The number of preschoolers from low-income households who qualify as obese or extremely obese has dropped over the last decade, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.

Although the decline was only "modest" and may not apply to all children, researchers said it was still encouraging.

"It's extremely important to make sure we're monitoring obesity in this low-income group," said the CDC's Heidi Blanck, who worked on the study.

Those kids are known to be at higher risk of obesity than their better-off peers, in part because access to healthy food is often limited in poorer neighborhoods.

The new results can't prove what's behind the progress, Blanck said, but two possible factors are higher rates of breast-feeding and rising awareness of the importance of physical activity for very young kids.

Blanck and her colleagues used data on routine clinic visits for about half of all U.S. kids eligible for federal nutrition programs, including 27.5 million children ages 2 to 4.

They found 13 percent of those preschoolers were obese in 1998. That grew to just above 15 percent in 2003, but dropped slightly below 15 percent in 2010, the most recent study year included.

Similarly, the prevalence of extreme obesity increased from nearly 1.8 percent in 1998 to 2.2 percent in 2003, then dropped back to just below 2.1 percent in 2010, the research team reported Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Copying e-records

Most doctors copy and paste old, potentially out-of-date information into patients' electronic records, according to a study looking at a shortcut that some experts fear could lead to miscommunication and medical errors.

"The electronic medical record was meant to make the process of documentation easier, but I think it's perpetuated copying," said Dr. Daryl Thornton, the lead author, from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Thornton's team examined 2,068 electronic records created by 62 residents and 11 attending physicians in the intensive care unit of a Cleveland hospital.

Electronic records have been touted as having the potential to transform patient data into easy-to-read documents that could be shared among providers. Many electronic systems allow text to be copied and pasted from other documents, a shortcut that could help time-crunched doctors but could also cause mistakes, critics say.

Study: Binge drinking among women may be overlooked

Binge drinking contributes to the deaths of about 12,000 women and girls annually in the U.S. and is a problem that is overlooked despite causing a long list of health risks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week.

The federal health agency found that 1 in every 8 women and 1 in 5 high school girls report binge drinking, which for females is defined as consuming four or more alcoholic drinks in a short time.

About twice as many men as women binge drink, but the health risks are different for women, and the dangers of their behavior draw less attention, said CDC Director Thomas Frieden.

"Binge drinking is an under-recognized women's health issue," he said. "Women tend to be smaller and, therefore, are more susceptible to the harms of alcohol at lower levels of drinking."

CDC scientists reviewed data collected in 2011 on the drinking behavior of about 278,000 women age 18 and older as well as 7,500 high school girls.

The report estimated that nearly 14 million U.S. women binge drink about three times a month.

Doctors, school debt

Pediatricians-in-training are more likely to plan to go into primary care, rather than a specialty field, if they have a lot of debt from college and medical school, according to a new study.

Researchers also found the average pediatric resident's debt increased 34 percent between 2006 and 2010. That suggests financial considerations may keep young doctors out of medical specialties, they said, especially those fields that aren't known for paying big bucks but still require extra training.

The debt "keeps climbing, and it doesn't seem like there's an end," said Mary Pat Frintner, the study's lead author, from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The new data, collected by the academy, are based on five years of surveys of young doctors finishing their residencies, the training that follows medical school. The study included about 2,700 pediatric residents.

Review of kids blood pressure

Despite long-standing recommendations that doctors check children's blood pressure at every office visit, a new review of research says there is not enough evidence to support that guideline.

The researchers say more studies looking at the benefits and harms of blood-pressure screening in children are needed before all doctors are told to do it.